Research Portal

Stimulating Offshore Wind Development in Nova Scotia

January – March 2021

To attract Offshore Wind (OSW) investment to Nova Scotia, it is important to understand the development in other jurisdictions. For example, Europe has developed, and the USA are developing, an active OSW industry encompassing the entire OSW supply chain.

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Microbial Genomics for De-Risking Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration in Nova Scotia

April 2016 – March 2021

The purpose of this $6.5M project is to develop, validate and deploy different genomics-based bioassay tools for offshore prospecting on the Scotian Slope.

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Sequence stratigraphy, titania diagenesis and relationship to petroleum systems modeling

October 2018 – January 2021

This project examines different forms of titania (TiO2) minerals to confirm the relationship between late diagenetic titania (i.e., titania minerals transformed under the heat and pressure of sedimentary processes) and hydrocarbon migration and thus assess the use of titania polymorphs as “pathfi

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Scotian Shelf Oils Geochemistry

December 2019 – December 2020

Twenty-five significant hydrocarbon discoveries have been made on the Scotian Shelf in shallow water. Additionally, staining is observed in many wells and over a large geographical area.

Geoscience » Tectonics and Crustal Structure

Paleogeographic Reconstruction and Source Rock De-Risking, Offshore Nova Scotia

February – November 2020

In this project GeoArctic modeled the tectonic evolution of the northern Central Atlantic to re-evaluate the syn-rift and early post-rift geological context of sedimentary basin formation.

Assessment of Geothermal Resources in Onshore Nova Scotia

May – November 2020

The objective of this project is to: (i) provide a review of the general types of geothermal resources in Nova Scotia (excluding shallow resources utilized by ground-source heat pumps) with reference to key regional, national and global examples; (ii) provide a preliminary evaluation of the poten

Net-Zero Future: A Feasibility Study of Hydrogen Production, Storage, Distribution and Use in The Maritimes

July – October 2020

This study explores hydrogen’s potential contribution to the Maritimes’ sustainable development goals. It also provides a technical and economic assessment of the role that hydrogen could play in the Maritimes’ energy transition.

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Aspy Well Geochemistry

December 2019 – September 2020

This project determines if indications of migrated hydrocarbons or potential source rocks were encountered during the 2018 drilling of BP’s deep-water well Aspy D-11 well.

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Predictive Modeling of Sandstone Reservoir Distribution in the SW Scotian Basin

March 2018 – April 2020

The SW Scotian Basin is considered an under-explored passive margin sedimentary basin, however, it is also the most probable location to find oil on the Scotian Margin.

Geoscience » Source Rock & Depositional Environment

Piston Coring Geochemistry Program

January 2015 – January 2020

Confirming the presence of hydrocarbons from an oil-prone Jurassic age source rock would encourage exploration in the deep water portion of Nova Scotia’s offshore.